"I was like 'Oh my God! Oh my God! She really is just like a porcelain doll'," Josh said.

He greeted her with: "Hello, Dolly," and she said: "Oh! You're wearing my coat of many colours!"

"Yes, I am," Josh replied. "And guess what my name is?"

When Ms Parton couldn't guess, he sang her song, Joshua, and she joined in with him, in harmony. A micro-recorder in Josh's pocket captured the experience for posterity. Then she told him: "You have a wonderful voice." Ms Parton asked which of her songs he liked best and he said Poor Folk's Town, released in 1980, which carried her underlying message you don't need to be wealthy to be rich in love.

"Thank you, Josh," she said. "I'll remember you."

Josh, who has been singing around the Northern Rivers for several years, recently auditioned for Australia's Got Talent, and is hanging out to hear whether he got in.

"I so truly believe that you have to have dreams," Josh told The Northern Star yesterday.

"Pursuing your dreams is the way to achieving what you really want in life."